Protests continue over closure of LA homeless camp
Los Angeles police detained protesters and members of the news media in a second night of confrontation over removal of a large homeless encampment that overtook a city park.
A Los Angeles Police Department statement said an unlawful assembly was declared Thursday night near Echo Park Lake when “several instigators” disrupted peaceful activity by using strobe lights against the officers.
The incident followed the city’s move Wednesday night to fence off the park for repairs while trying to move homeless people to alternative housing, largely hotel rooms under a program called Roomkey. That move led to a confrontation with demonstrators who oppose closing the camp.
The Los Angeles Times said one of its reporters was briefly detained Thursday night but was released without being arrested after inquiries by the newspaper’s editors and attorney.
Times Managing Editor Kimi Yoshino said the news organization was outraged that the reporter was detained while doing his job.
The LAPD said the declaration of unlawful assembly was announced at least five times and members of the media were asked to remove themselves from the crowd.
When reporters were detained along with protesters, representatives of the police media relations team were brought in to identify them and they were released without being arrested, police said.
Mitch O’Farrell, the City Council member who represents the Echo Park area, has spearheaded efforts to remove the camp and house its residents elsewhere. He says the park has hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage.
“I urge calm and cooperation tonight at Echo Park as we continue our work to move the final few people experiencing homelessness from the park into transitional housing before the parkspace closes temporarily for repairs,” O’Farrell said in a statement.
Citing “significant progress” toward housing everyone at the park, O’Farrell said 32 additional individuals
were moved to transitional housing Thursday, bringing the total to nearly 200.
The encampment has been the site of drug overdoses, assaults and shootings, with four deaths in the park over the past year, according to a statement from O’Farrell’s office.
A January 2020 count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported that there were more than 66,400 homeless people living in Los Angeles County — by far the largest single concentration in the state.
That included more than 41,000 people within Los Angeles city limits. Both figures were up more than 12% from the previous year. The annual count was canceled for 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.